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mission.”
    â€œWhat’d you get?”
    â€œAn Egg McMuffin.”
    â€œA fine choice.”
    â€œI’m glad you approve,” Carter said. “How about you?”
    He’d been doing his own inventory as they talked. “I have some duct tape.” He frowned. “They took my sunglasses. And my hat.”
    â€œActually I think you lost your hat when you were falling off the cliff,” Carter said.
    â€œAnd my sunglasses?”
    â€œNo, Keret took those. He seems to like them.”
    Jack shook his head. “Got any more bad news?”
    â€œOnly questions,” Carter said. “Where do you suppose they got the zats?”
    â€œThe Goa’uld who runs this place?”
    â€œI can’t imagine she’d have a reason to arm these guys. But maybe some of her Jaffa are dealing arms on the side.”
    â€œThat’s a hell of a risk,” Jack said. “And given that this place doesn’t have any actual resources that are interesting to anybody but archaeology geeks, why would they take it?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Carter said. “Why would somebody be that interested in making a deal with these people when they clearly don’t have much to offer in return?”
    That sounded pointed. He chose not to take up the thrown gauntlet. “I can’t see the Jaffa being interested in some old stone tablets, so… I don’t know. We need more information.”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    â€œWhat did you tell them?”
    â€œVery little,” Carter said. “We didn’t exactly have a long conversation, just ‘you’re my prisoners and you’re worth a lot to me’ and then he threw us down here.”
    â€œSo we’ll probably have company soon. Hard to ransom someone if you don’t know what they’re worth to who.”
    â€œThere’s something to look forward to,” Carter said. The note of unease in her voice was faint enough that he thought someone who didn’t know her well would have missed it completely.
    â€œDaniel and Teal’c are probably already looking for us,” Jack said. “We just need to sit tight and wait for the chance to improve the situation.” He hadn’t expected to need to tell her that; after two and a half years in the field, she knew it well enough.
    â€œRight,” Carter said, and he could hear her taking deep breaths, calming herself down. He nodded approvingly, although he knew she probably couldn’t see it.
    â€œYou did say you wanted to get a closer look at the airships,” he said.
    â€œThere is that,” she said, and it was more like what he expected from her that she sounded like that might actually make it all worthwhile.

Chapter Six
    Â 
    D aniel opened his eyes, blinking in the dim light. Next to his head was a fold of fabric, which turned out to be part of a stack of bolts of heavy woven cloth when he managed to focus on it more clearly. He was still wearing his glasses, and they seemed to be unbroken, which was a good thing. He looked past the bolts of cloth and saw bars. Probably not such a good thing.
    â€œDaniel Jackson. Are you injured?”
    Teal’c. That was a good thing, except in the sense that if he was in a cell of some kind, and Teal’c was in it with him, then Teal’c wouldn’t be arriving to rescue him. Which was more of a bad thing.
    He abandoned that particular exercise in mental arithmetic and sat up. Everything seemed to work properly. “I’m fine,” he said, although he felt that he’d acquired a new collection of bruises. “You?”
    â€œI am uninjured,” Teal’c said.
    â€œWhat happened?”
    â€œI believe we have been captured by the men who attacked the ceremony,” Teal’c said.
    â€œGreat,” Daniel said, getting to his feet. “I saw Jack go down, I don’t know about Sam —”
    â€œShe was still fighting when I was